Katherine Nelson -"Selected Drawings from a Foreign Assignment"

November 13, 2009 - November 28, 2009

The Art Spirit Gallery at 415 Sherman Avenue in downtown Coeur d’Alene is proud to feature Katherine Nelson –Selected Drawings from a Foreign Assignment, an exhibition featuring new charcoal drawings of landscapes, marionettes, and gargoyles.  The opening reception is on Friday, November 13, 2009 from 5-8 in conjunction with the 2nd Friday Downtown Art Walk.  Everyone is welcome. 
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This show is sponsored by DOMA Coffee Roasting Company.  We thank them for their fine coffee, commitment to community and support of the arts in our region.

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November Hours: Open Tuesday through Saturday from 11-6.

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The Art Spirit Gallery has represented Colbert, Washington artist Katherine Nelson for the past 8 years.  Currently, Katherine has joined her husband who is employed by Itron on a 3 year assignment in Brussels, Belgium.  Traveling abroad to study foreign landscapes and architecture is not a new experience for Katherine.  As a youth she spent 12 years in Europe with her parents who were on assignment for the US Government.  Katherine is pleased to once again create a body of work that captures the sensations and understanding of residing abroad. 

Katherine’s work has been shown predominately on the east and west coasts in the United States.  However, this opportunity to live in Brussels is allowing her to receive international recognition. She just completed a solo exhibit in September/October 2009 at “The HUB”, the European Media Center located in the U.S. Embassy in Brussels. 

She has also been invited to the Musee Palais de Tokyo in Paris to conduct a workshop in March 2010, where she is honored to be the first American to participate in the Madame Tok Tok educational forum. 

ARTIST STATEMENT

The landscape is a continuously evolving living and dramatic visual entity.  I am enamored with deeply patterned plowed earth, green wheat, scenic roadways, dark forests, idyllic hills, and topiary.  Contrasting light, organic forms, textures and patterns upon the earth captivate my imagination.  The land contains simultaneously feminine and masculine visual elements appearing abundantly fertile.  Roadways are a metaphor for the choices one makes on the journey of life.  Most of us hope that the road we find ourselves on is simply the “right” choice.

Charcoal is a means for me to visually express and recreate the drama in the environments around me.  Charcoal enhances my subject matter giving it a timelessness and that other world quality so hard to describe but to which I am deeply drawn.  I depart from color without sacrificing elements of light, value, shape, texture, and thereby, further exaggerate the subject.  Charcoal is technically a dry medium but I find it to be totally fluid as I manipulate it across the surface of my paper.

For me charcoal is also the most illuminating medium of choice as I spend just as much time erasing the image as adding to it to build up a drawing to the point of completion.  In choosing charcoal over any other medium I am able to create an image that will always have an open surface for revision...a quality which is heavenly to me.

-Katherine Nelson

RESUME